> But it is still worth contemplating a world without Sci-Hub—that is to say, a world in which Sci-Hub would be unnecessary. The “effective nationalization” proposed by Wiley and by the academic publishers themselves might just pave the way there. Imagine it: a 21st-century Library of Alexandria, a truly utopian creation, gifted to the world by Uncle Sam.
Those are fair sentiments but in my experience, replacing one ideological solution (capitalism) with another (socialism) just shifts the pile of money to be made, from one group of people to another.
From my perspective, I'm not sure there really is a solution as, no matter what we try, at some point somewhere greed just seems to get the better of us.
Call me cynical but I'm not convinced by Mr Gates or his foundation. Like many of us on here, I too lived through 'the Microsoft years', I watched Microsoft under his leadership effectively dominate their competition using fair means and foul. Case in point, Microsoft are the first to be mentioned in the Examples section of the Wikipedia page on FUD.
I've subsequently listened to him in interviews over the last 10 months, and the man cannot stop himself, he sees a large mound of money and his old cutthroat competitive spirit comes surging back.
In some interviews it's like he's out of breath just getting out his own way, to rubbish his rivals and convince us to buy 'his vaccine'.
Those are fair sentiments but in my experience, replacing one ideological solution (capitalism) with another (socialism) just shifts the pile of money to be made, from one group of people to another.
From my perspective, I'm not sure there really is a solution as, no matter what we try, at some point somewhere greed just seems to get the better of us.